Support Priest best build / ab investment?

Hello everyone! I want to build a mostly support priest where fighting/spirituality isn't my focus. I play with my friends and sister and are almost always around them when hunting and possibly in the future with PVP. I don't know which route is better to play as a mostly or fully supporting priest (Healing Skill Tree or Devotion Skill Tree) and would like some guidance before I go spending my shiny new 1k lessons. Thank you in advance!

Best Answers

1) Builds don't vary much between players of the same class. Eventually, everyone wants to tri-trans (except maybe serpent, lol).

2) "Support" isn't a pure role on its own in Achaea, so you won't be able to make something like a healer class in other games.

3) Taking anything but spirituality first will leave you extremely dependent on others without really providing enough in return to make others want to carry you around beyond the pleasure of your company. The most useful support in Achaea is actually hitting your enemies.

That said, Devotion will provide more for you to help out with for hunting, though that's basically just a couple of rites, hands, bliss buffs and maybe bloodsworn. Hands is like 2 skills in, though, and bbliss isn't too far in.

We can talk in game, but in group fights as a priest it is possible to support rather than fight if that's what you really want. It'll take some doing though

It's possible in small (2v2, maybe 3v3) group fights. For larger groups there's really no point, a single Priest won't keep up with the damage and/or afflictions coming in, so you'd almost certainly contribute more towards actually winning the fight by attacking.

That said, Devotion will provide more for you to help out with for hunting, though that's basically just a couple of rites, hands, bliss buffs and maybe bloodsworn. Hands is like 2 skills in, though, and bbliss isn't too far in.

Rites really aren't worth using for hunting 99% of the time. They're slow to put up and not at all mobile, so it's mostly just a waste of Devotion except for a few specific rooms in whatever areas you hunt. You can reclaim the rites to get some of the Devotion back, but then you're just adding even more time where you're not actually killing things, so it's a bit pointless.

Hands is a couple of abilities in, but its effectiveness is (or was - it may have changed, but I don't believe it has) based on skillrank in Devotion, so more lessons invested means more healing. Not enough to really make Devotion an attractive option though.

Answers

@Kiet Thank you so much for the thorough explanation. I definitely don't want to be a hindrance to those around me so I will invest properly. Your information has been extremely insightful I truly appreciate it!